Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Peanut farmer

“Senator Obama says that I’m running for a Bush’s third term," McCain said, picking up the central Democratic line of attack. "Seems to me he’s running for Jimmy Carter’s second.”

I was born less than one month after Jimmy Carter left office. I have no strong memory of the Reagan Administration, and only hazy memories of Bush I (entirely due to the Gulf War.) If there's a surge in youth voting this year -- as seems likely -- it's all but certain that the majority of voters in 2008 will have been born after the Carter Administration, and have similarly hazy ideas of the pre-Clinton past.

Still, the Simpsons taught my generation that Carter was history's greatest monster, so maybe this will have some resonance.